This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-303769, filed Oct. 3, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing service method for a printing system, which is installed in a convenience store or another type of shop and used by unspecified users. The invention also relates to the printing system itself.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile phones that provide a function of receiving E-mails are known nowadays. Also, portable terminals capable of receiving E-mails, called xe2x80x9cPDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)xe2x80x9d, are known. These mobile phones or portable terminals do not have a printing function, and hence cannot print an E-mail received. Further, in the mobile phones, in particular, their display screens are small and can display only a limited number of characters. Accordingly, when a phone receives a long mail, it must cut off characters that exceed the limited number. If an E-mail includes an attachment file, this must also be cut since it cannot be displayed. In light of this, a printing technique that uses a short-range radio communication technique called xe2x80x9cBluetoothxe2x80x9d has been developed. In this technique, an E-mail received by a mobile phone is transmitted therefrom to a printing apparatus using Bluetooth, where the E-mail is printed.
When using a mobile phone for business, there may be a case in which the user wants to print instantly an E-mail received by their mobile phone in a place where they have gone. In this case, it is very convenient if a printing apparatus or a copy machine with a printing function, which can print the E-mail, is installed in a convenience store, a shop or the like located near the place where they are. Moreover, when printing the E-mail, it is much more useful if the printing process is linked with a process of improving business service.
Therefore, there is a need for a printing service, for a printing system, of receiving, from the terminal of a user, such as a mobile phone, printing data such as a mail or an attachment file received by the terminal, and printing the read data onto a printing medium. There is another need for a printing service of printing an advertisement, requested by an advertiser, onto the printing medium to thereby reduce the printing charge or make it free.
In a print service method for a printing system, text data contained in a mail received by a mobile phone owned by a user, and attachment file data attached to the received mail are downloaded into the printing system from the mobile phone. Application software corresponding to the attachment file data is selected from various types of application software stored in the printing system, thereby opening the attachment file data by using the selected application software. The text data and the attachment file data opened by the selected application software are printed onto a printing medium.
Further, in a printing service method for a printing system that is connectable to an Internet and is provided with a Web browser function, text data contained in a mail received by a mobile phone owned by a user, the text data containing a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), is downloaded into the printing system from the mobile phone. The printing system is connected to the Internet, and Web page data is downloaded by accessing the URL by using the Web browser function of the printing system on the basis of the URL contained in the downloaded text data. The text data and the Web browser data downloaded from the URL are printed onto a printing medium.